Flowing in a System That Wasn’t Built for You (Yet)
This post is part of our series, How Natural Law Can Help You Thrive at Work. Each post explores how nature’s wisdom can help us reimagine work — cultivating the social soil where people and planet flourish in harmony. Read the full series.
Swimming Upstream: What it feels like to work against the current.
Many of us know what it feels like to swim against the current at work. You’re paddling hard, but wave after wave keeps pushing you back. When a system isn’t designed to support your movement, processes are rigid, priorities compete, and what feels natural to you often seems out of sync with “the way things are done.”
It can feel lonely — as though the system itself is stacked against you. And in a sense, it is. Most organizations weren’t built with human thriving at the center. They were built on industrial models of control and efficiency.
But here’s the hopeful part: just because the system wasn’t built for you yet doesn’t mean it can’t evolve.
The Physics of Flow: How nature optimizes for movement and connection.
In nature, flow is not optional. It’s the way life sustains itself. Rivers carve channels, trees branch toward light, and even our own bodies adapt pathways for blood and breath. This is Constructal Law — the principle that flow systems evolve to move resources more easily over time.
When you feel constant friction at work, it’s often a sign that the channels of the system aren’t aligned with your natural flows of strength. Instead of attention and creativity flowing, we encounter blockages, detours, and dams.
Systems leadership invites us to notice where flow is stuck—and to prototype better channels.
Bending the Channels: Finding ways to adapt existing structures to support people.
The beauty of systems is that they are not fixed. Just as rivers change course and forests regenerate after fire, organizations can adapt. Leaders can open space for creativity. Teams can shift patterns of communication. Individuals can introduce practices that ease pressure and allow energy to circulate more freely.
Sometimes this looks like redesigning workflows to reduce unnecessary friction. Sometimes it means honoring natural rhythms—alternating deep focus, recovery, and collective reflection. And sometimes it’s as simple as listening more closely to feedback, allowing the system to bend before it breaks.
The point is: we are not powerless. By tending to flow, we begin to reshape the channels of work.
Why 'Yet' Matters: The mindset shift that makes change possible.
That little word ‘yet’ carries so much possibility. It acknowledges the truth: the system wasn’t built with you in mind. But it also affirms the potential: systems evolve, and your presence can be part of that evolution.
This shift to a “natural mindset” is essential for systems leadership. Instead of seeing friction as proof that change is impossible, we can see it as a signal that something new wants to emerge. Just as nature never stops finding pathways for flow, we can keep shaping work to move more freely, with less resistance and more life.
“Leadership is about the capacity of the whole system to sense and actualize the future that wants to emerge.” — Otto Scharmer
Onward—
If you feel like you’re swimming upstream, know that you’re not alone — and you’re not imagining it. The system wasn’t built for you yet. But “yet” is the doorway to change.
In the next part of this series, we’ll look at what living ecosystems can teach us about design — and how forests, reefs, and rivers can inspire healthier ways to shape our organizations.
This is Part 2 of our series, How Natural Law Can Help You Thrive at Work. If you missed Part 1: When Work Drains Your Creativity, it explores how systems can either fuel or block our natural flow of energy. Each reflection in the series builds toward a future where people and planet can thrive together in harmony.
